NASCAR in trouble - Wall Street Journal

The current audience base is not attractive to advertisers. Or CPM (cost per thousand) to reach the millennial crowd is not effective in this event, as they're not really into motor sports. Like my two twenty-something's I raised - never any interest in my race cars or track events. They like virtual stuff - Xbox, Nintendo and other finger demanding activities.

 

Well, I'm not subscribing to see the article, but here's my take as a long-time fan with season tickets at Texas Motor Speedway:

1. NASCAR has made an effort to make the spectacle more important than the racing -- to the point that the race always feels fixed now. Let someone get a nice solid lead, and you can guarantee the phantom debris yellow will come out

2. Drivers are muzzled to the point of being boring. No more bigger-than-life legends.

3. Terrible car "updates" that have made almost every track a single-file borefest.

4. "The Chase" eliminates the value of 3/4 of the season. I cannot express the disdain I have for this three-stage nonsense this year.

NASCAR used to be my go-to on Sundays. Now I can't even tell you who is on the pole for Daytona. My buddy and I tend to leave the races by halfway, because they are just boring.

 

did Brian France really sell his stake in the company, and if so to whom? I would think that would have been big news...and not many people/entities would be able to afford it.

I started watching NASCAR in the late 80's and watched every race for probably 20 years. now I don't watch anything but parts of the Daytona 500 and maybe a couple of short ovals. I think that sums up NASCAR's problem. core fans just DGAF anymore. I have no idea what would get me back to watching like I used to, probably nothing.

 

A bad combination of NASCAR trying to make everything non-offensive (forbidding hard liquor sponsors, punishments for fighting, etc.) and the new generation being a whole bunch of ******* that think they can save the earth from itself.

 

Rules, rules, rules.

 

Product is boring, and silly rules killing it. They had a good run, but it's definitely not going to keep the momentum it's had.

 

First, it may be assured after that scathing report, if the WSJ sends reporters or photographers
to the Daytonner 500 that their credentials will be revoked. Anyone that openly dares to point
out NASCAR's many flaws surely loses access.

NASCAR's issues have been covered in this forum ad nausea so no sense in rifling through
the reasons that viewership by paying spectators and TV broadcasts has declined.

The NASCAR leadership, France family, have taken what made NASCAR a great sport with a colorful
history initially and turned it into a made for TV corporate run shell of itself. We may point to just
about any sport really that has been watered down for the sake of TV numbers
but perhaps none approaching the level that NASCAR has.

The interesting analogy made in the interview was the NBA reached new heights during the
Michael Jordan era, golf soared when Tiger Woods was winning, all this. That is well and
good, but NASCAR's anointed one, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Jr. has been their highly visible and
popular participant for over a decade and has failed to back all that up with championships.

Does NASCAR go even further with their nonsense to help promote Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Jr. to a
championship to help drive up ratings? Well, they've bent over backwards to that end and it
still hasn't worked out.

It all comes down to relevance. If NASCAR wants to capture the limited attention spans of
a millennial audience, then they should can the nonsense manufactured drama, put cars on
the track that they may identify with featuring real technology then let the drivers and teams
go racing instead of constantly (CONSTANTLY) meddling with the formula.

Let's face reality, all of racing is heading towards a bleak future as the world changes (electric,
hybrid and self driving cars, etc.) and the day will surely come when racing itself becomes
extinct.

BHW

 

Too many races, too many ridiculous scoring scenarios, too few manufacturers, cars too generic, drivers too scripted....not too hard to figure out.

 

My wife and I still go every year to the race here in Vegas. I still like NASCAR and do not find it boring although the new format doesn't peak my interest but we shall see how it works out. I thought the Chase was a good thing and do like the play off format. Anyway one of NASCARS issue is they have made it too expensive for the people who like it to go to races. They filled in a TON of seats here with rock instead of offering cheap seats to the masses that would have gladly filled them for $10 a seat. I don't get why they shoot themselves in the foot on stuff like that. Most of my friends can't afford to do to the Sunday race which is sad. They have cut out a lot of the folks that (would) support them from going to the races. So then they loose interest, stop watching on TV, attendance goes down and you have the issues you have now. It used to be racing for the "good ole boys and gals" now its racing for people with money.

 

Well, well well...

Not so long ago, NASCAR was still heralded as the model F1 should follow.

It was supposed to have the right mixture of sport and entertainment, and look after its audience like no other motor sport organisation could do.

Some even welcomed Liberty Media's take-over of F1 as its salvation, and claimed that an USA company was going to show the rest of the world how things should be done.

So, reading some of the posts on this thread, I have second thoughts about the future of F1 if the plan was to mimic NASCAR.

 

+1

It may be so, that's why we better enjoy what we have now!

 

Motor racing is *very* alive and well outside of the mainstream TV.

The mainstream TV is pandering to political views, and any motor racing shown has to play along. Its the political pressure from being seen by so many on TV that is changing NASCAR and F1.

The TV brings money, but its resulting in a weakening of product, especially for those in actual attendance.

As a TV F1 watcher, the hybrid's sound isn't worse then the(as heard on TV) dentist drill cars they replaced, but for the person actually there, the difference is probably much more dramatic.

Tillman hit on some very good points that would make a good starting position to turn things around. The problem, the worse it gets, the harder they will try to "fix it"; failing to realize the medicine they are giving is what is killing the patient.

 

I went to Daytona for years - RV's then a Bus - stayed across the street from the track in our own special spot - things were great - then a friend of mine who owned the property we were staying on ran into a problem with Nascar in 2002 - he had a box on the back stretch that had a bar, food etc where he entertained business people and long term friends like myself - Nascar told him he was not important enough to have a box and took it from him! Wow, now there is not even backstretch boxes or seating or anything. Boy did they F up. Then they started races later in the day for tv even though 1,000's of people had to drive thru the terrible traffic, long drives home and work the next day. Then of course prices got really high and eventually priced people out.

They need to go back to the old days and let the drivers fight it out and say what they want.
France is a mere shadow of the old Frances. It seems that the changes started when Dale Sr was killed in 2001

 

Not sure if we may trace NASCAR's issues to Earnhardt, Sr's death.

Seems to me, practically whenever Sr. won a race, he was roundly booed by the spectators.
He was always one of the guys people loved to hate and he relished the "villain" role. Also,
I remember the day of his death, he was holding up (blocking) the opposition allowing Waltrip
and Jr. Jr. Jr. to romp away. Several times, the cameras would pan with Sr's car and he was
flipping the bird out the window, giving an f-you to NASCAR or the drivers behind (or both).

But I digress, think really the issues in discussion here stem to the time when NASCAR and
ESPN terminated their deal. ESPN all but put NASCAR on the TV map in an unprecedented
manner. It seemed their partnership would go on forever.

But, then FOX and NBC came calling with boat loads of money for the broadcast rights and
it is pretty clear that is when things started going off the rails.

Television money is watering down a lot of sports, not just NASCAR. The NFL is a prime example
of how to ruin a product with massive over commercialization which has reduced
the games to ho-hum affairs.

BHW

 

+1

 

1) They said the same thing about F1 - and somehow it was purchased.
2) Ditto for me, I used to never miss an F1 race on TV - until we lost Senna.
I got tired of nascar when they really started cracking down with BS rules, someone
used an 'unapproved' 1/2 nut/bolt, they get fined $10,000. The one that pissed me off the most
was when they banned Carl Long because his engine pumped at 363 ci, 5 over the limit, so they
fined him $200,000. He bought the motor from a competitor - and that competitor even 'testified'
it was over the limit, but still, they never rescinded anything. He was a privateer, so that effectively
killed him from racing.

Well, first, I agree with everything you said, but if you go search my past postings, I
have been saying this for over 10 years.
And as far as credentials being lifted - they did that to me after I suggested they should
pay me for photos they used that I took. And I was VERY reasonable, but instead they
banished me. Problem was I didn't give a **** and just stopped covering it.
A friend that worked in a support series wrote me a check out of his expense account,
so I DID get paid, just not by the HQ in daytona beach.

Even if Jr. won a championship that would do nothing today, nobody under 30 knows who
he is, unless you grew up on racing.

In 5 more years nobody on the street will be able to tell you who Mario Andretti or
Richard Petty was, most folks already cannot tell you who AJ Foyt was.

Think about this: today, with the under 30 crowd, how many folks can REALLY tell
you who or what Wilt Chamberlain or Joe Namath did? Gretzky? Howe?
If Jim Brown didn't keep himself in front of a camera few would know how he is today.

No, as I have been saying 'forever', the digital age has passed it by,
20 and 30-somethings just as soon sit home and be glued to their smart devices,
and watching a 2-3-4 hour races ain't the things they are watching.

TV brought money in - to SOME teams. It takes money to win, it takes more money
to be on TV by winning. It's nuts, and it's pretty-much over because there is no way
they will ever be able to resurrect a new fan base. Not in today's world.
As I have said a million times, TV/Money ruined motorsports.
People would do (pay) anything to be on TV, and to be on TV a lot you have to
win, and to win takes money, and money comes from... being on TV, not necessarily
from TV itself.

They started in that timeframe, but not because of Sr's death, but just because his
death coinceded with the time things started going downhill.



I think the only way to even try to resurrect it is to lighten up on the rules,
let them run supercars, turn it into a speedfest, with the caveat that ALL parts
have to be over-the-counter parts, no specialty one-off parts, and those parts
have to be priced so low-end teams can afford them.
The engine you qualify in is the engine you start the race on.
No more 16 sets of tires, where the rich teams could change them 3 times in 15 laps
if they wanted to, the set you are on has to last X laps (30? 40?) unless you have a flat.

There are a ton of things nascar could do, they just don't want to, mainly because
they would LOSE CONTROL.

 

Eventually, people want the best.

 

In motorsports, where is that?


NHRA....

 

Short track racing is exciting with lots of passing and lots of wrecks. Anything more than a mile long track and it gets boring. 1/2 mile ovals are the best, I use to race in ASA which was a feeder system to NASCAR, in fact I raced with Jimmy Johnson for 2 years. After his first Daytona 500 I asked him what it was like and he said boring. You put your foot to the floor and never lift and just try to avoid the big crash.

 

And when F1 was purchased it was major news all over the world. I'm not saying it couldn't or can't or didn't happen, I just said if it did how the heck did they keep it that quiet.

 

NHRA is curling on steroids. Currently the best racing is 33% of the SCCA Runoffs.

 

Agreed, NHRA. A race every 30 seconds or so. Frankly, as a long time NASCAR fan, and I mean since the later 60's, it's been all down hill since Dale Sr, died (though I was never a fan) and they started with rules for everything. And the car of tomorrow didn't help. And let's not forget the over exposure with every race on TV.

Today it's little more that IROC with 40 cars. Back in the day Daytona and Dega were the best races because they really put the cars to the test. It was a challenge just to finish running. Today, yes, they are boring. Start, drive around for a couple of hours and race for the last 20 laps. But I'm not a fan of short tracks either. A 1/2 mile track with 40 car sis stupid. It's just a moving obstacle course. I figure the next move for NASCAR will be autonomous cars. Oh well, time for my nap, I mean the Monster Energy Duel.

 

Perfect for the short attention span consumers of today. But anywhere other than being physically at the track and it will get ruined as well by too many damn commercials.